BARRY WINTER reflects on Tony Benn’s personality and politics, interweaving his own memories of the period as he considers the left’s failures in the 1970s and ’80s and the lessons for those seeking progressive change today. Few people in contemporary politics have attracted such public affection as Tony Benn. In spite of years of vilification...
People’s Assembly March to Demand the Alternative
The People’s Assembly anti-austerity movement is organising a march to ‘Demand the Alternative’ in London on Saturday 21 June....
No Short Cuts to a Progressive Scotland
The Yes campaign is winning increasing support among the left. But, says VINCE MILLS, this is based on wishful thinking about Scottish social attitudes and a failure to grasp the real difficulties of radical social and economic change. ...
Unmasking Austerity, Finding Alternatives
A new book from Dexter Whitfield exposes how austerity policies in Europe and North America have fuelled the fire of recession rather than stimulated growth....
Axing the ILF will be ‘Catastrophic’ for Disabled People
The government’s decision to axe the Independent Living Fund will have ‘catastrophic’ consequences for disabled people, according to the Unite union....
Rally Against Racism
Unite and the TUC are organising a march and rally in London to mark the United Nation’s Anti-racism Day on Saturday 22 March....
Welfare Cuts ‘Leading to Suicide Threats’
Government welfare cuts are driving people to the edge of suicide, claimed the Unite union this week before an MPs’ debate on the impact of welfare reforms on disabled people....
The Great Stumble Forward
The proposed reforms to Labour’s links with the trade unions are both a significant step forward and a fudge, says WILL BROWN. While the changes should be welcomed (with some reservations), the prospect of a mass, democratic, participatory party is still a long way off....
Government ‘Turning a Blind Eye’ to Bedroom Tax Suffering
The Unite union this week accused the government of turning a blind eye to the suffering being caused by the ‘bedroom tax’, as new figures reveal up to 50,000 households have been charged in error. ...
Conference to Mark Workers’ Internationalism
A conference to mark two significant anniversaries of workers’ internationalism will be held in Norwich this weekend....
The ILP and Labour Party Democracy
The ILP has a long history of campaigning for democratic change within the Labour Party. We were at the forefront of the early campaigns for internal reform in the late 1970s when the left agued for (and eventually won, in 1979) the right of constituency Labour Parties to deselect sitting MPs. This right, now...
ILP@120: Alf Mattison – Leeds Archivist and Labour Activist
A lifelong ILPer, Alf Mattison is best known as a local historian, and for his Leeds Labour archives, source of material on the movement’s early years. MICHAEL MEADOWCROFT discovers the man behind the footnotes. Socialism has always needed its scribes and archivists. Alf Mattison was both, and without him Labour history in Leeds would be...